Among his books printed at Strawberry Hill are: _A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his friend Lien Chi, at Peking_, 1757. _A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England_, 2 vols., 1758. _Fugitive Pieces in Verse and Prose_, 1758. _Anecdotes of Painting in England_, 4 vols., 1762. _The Castle of Otranto_, 1764. _The Mysterious Mother, a Tragedy_, 1768. _A Description and Inventory of the Villa of Horace Walpole_, 1774. _Hieroglyphic Tales_, 1784. _Essay on Modern Gardening_, 1785. _Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of George II._ _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._ See also his _Letters_. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct have nothing that savours of barbarism. The style is of the purest Italian. If the story was written near the time when it is supposed to have happened, it must have been between 1095, the era of the first crusade, and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards. There is no other circumstance in the work that can lead us to guess at the period in which the scene is laid; the names of the actors are evidently fictitious, and probably disguised on purpose; yet the Spanish names of the domestics seem to indicate, that this work was not composed until the establishment of the Arragonian kings in Naples had made Spanish appellations familiar in that country. The beauty of the diction, and the zeal of the author (moderated, however, by singular judgment), concur to make me think that the date of the composition was little antecedent to that of the impression. Letters were then in the most flourishing state in Italy, and contributed to dispel the empire of superstition, at that time so forcibly attacked by the reformers. It is not unlikely that an artful priest might endeavour to turn their own arms on the innovators; and might avail himself of his abilities as an author to confirm the populace in their ancient errors and superstitions. If this was his view, he has certainly acted with signal address. Such a work as the following would enslave a hundred vulgar minds beyond half the books of controversy that have been written from the days of Luther to the present hour.